Larry Backlund brings decades of loon watching experience to his daily Loon Blog. With a view overlooking his nesting platform, he gives a rare look into the life of a nesting loon, with words that can only be described from a man that loves the birds as much as he does.

You will be pleased to hear that our loons are doing well. All three of them are sitting just outside the buoys. And they are feeding the chick.

Our little loon chick has already grown so much in the last few days.

It is hard to believe that he was hatched almost a week ago. It will be one week about noon tomorrow.

They still have spent more time away from the nesting area than I have been used to seeing in previous years. But yesterday I saw them just outside the buoys on three different occasions.

As far as I have seen, they have not come back to the nest at all. No attempts to get back up on the nest or to even check it out.

No bringing the chick back to say to him, "See, this is the place you were born."

Which that has been encouraging to see - that the loons have moved on with their lives. That the bond with the nest has already seemingly been broken.

I was concerned that with an egg left unhatched that they may continue coming back to the nest. And that the little chick would get too used to being on the nest. Just like the chick a few years ago who loved the nest too much and kept returning to it.

While it was wonderful to see him grow, it was not natural. It was not what should happen. And he spent too much time by himself rather than learning from his parents what it meant to be a loon.

And I think that probably played into his eventual demise. I don't know what happened to him but my guess would be that by being alone and too trusting, he was too easy a prey for eagles.

But this little chick seems to be learning very well what it means to be a loon. He loves sitting on a back, especially dad's back. He loves having little minnows brought to him to eat.

And he is growing. Healthy. And active.

With the loons not returning to the nest at all, last night I decided it was time to look for the right opportunity to remove the egg from the nest.

Just before dark last night, all three loons were sitting just out beyond the buoys.

I went down to the lake and did some things along the shore. The loons saw me and watched me. But they did not seem concerned, let alone upset.

So I went out a little further and continued to pick up weeds.

Again, no concern from the loons. They continued to just float together outside the buoys.

So I finally just went out to the nest and picked up the egg and walked back to shore.

I looked and listened and smelled the egg.

I do not see any pips or cracks. I heard no sounds. And there was little if any smell to the egg.

There was absolutely no sign that a chick was close enough to hatching that it had tried to make its way out of the egg.

My fear has been that the egg had developed almost to the point of hatching and my hope has been that it might have been infertile.

We will try to do some research on the egg to find out everything we can about it.

When I got up to the house with the egg, I did notice a 'scratch' in the middle of the shell. Certainly not a place where a chick would have been trying to make its way out of the egg. And it was not from the inside. It was a scratch into the shell from the outside.

I don't know that it has any significance. Just a curiosity of an observation.

But the key thing is that I wanted you to know that the chick is alive and thriving.

I will try to keep you updated periodically right here on the blog.

If you also want updates in the months ahead, send you email address to LoonCamATyahooDOTcom. There won't be many updates and they will probably be months between. But I I will try to keep you updated.

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Minnesota Bound

Sharing Stories of the Great Outdoors

Ron Schara, and his trusted
black
lab, Raven, began sharing stories of the outdoor lifestyle back in
1995.
Minnesota Bound is the show that started it all for Ron Schara and he
quickly found a passion for putting his words onto the television
screen. Today, it remains a trademark
program and is now running over 600 episodes strong. We seek characters that have a story to
tell. We seek out destinations and find out what makes them special.
We share the love of outdoors and those that enjoy it. Yes, it's
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and hunting, but it's also camping, hiking, canoeing, archery, bird
watching, ice climbing and so much more. Minnesota Bound is a fan
favorite winning several hundred OWAA awards during its lifespan,
including 11 Emmy Awards.